Abstract
“Regional Experience Seekers” are anticipated as a trump card for the furtherance of future regional revitalization. The spread of COVID-19 infection has restricted activities for visitation in many regions. By contrast, expectations for non-visitation activities that engage with a community online and through other means are increasing. Nevertheless, the extent to which each prefecture has acquired a population of relations consisting of various contents remains unknown. The possibility of shifting to a visitation type in the future is also expected to differ depending on the composition of the contents of non-visitation-type activities. To implement community revitalization measures after control of the COVID-19 pandemic, first it is necessary to organize basic information related to the actual situation of acquiring such Regional Experience Seekers. Then the information must be examined. For this study, based on a large-scale nationwide survey, we specifically examined both non-visitation and visitation activities. We first identified spatial characteristics of the two related populations using indices such as the degree of divergence and the Gini coefficient. Subsequently, after categorizing prefectures based on the proportions of activities of each type, we clarified the acquisition characteristics of the concerned populations by showing the proportion of people with an intention to visit after control of COVID-19 for non-visitation activities of the respective types. Results indicate a weaker influence of distance resistance for non-visitation activities than for visitation activities, but that resistance is more concentrated in specific prefectures. Furthermore, results show that even if numerous non-visitation activities per person are acquired, regions for which contents depend on a hometown tax donation program are not expected to benefit from increased intentions of people to visit after resolution of the COVID-19 pandemic.
